History

• Messages sorted by: [ date ][ thread ][ subject ][ author ]
• Next message: Danny Yee: "Book Review - Always Coming Home (Le Guin)"
• Previous message: Anita Cohen-Williams: "Two more sites for Part 1"

Pat Tucker writes,

"The bottom line is that we must recogzine the problems caused by space and
time on history and culture and devise methods to sift through primary
documents and sources to reconstruct the history and culture of a Native
American group and chart its evolution or devolution to be able to specify
what it means for example to be an "Odawa" or "Wyandot". Being of Indian
blood is not the sole criterion, nor for that matter a criterion, to speak of
historical truth and knowledge."

I'll buy that and add the caution that no one voice speaks for the whole. Among
"my" peoples (the Chinese and Japanese :-)), there's a fair diversity of
opinion over how to interpret their history. But, then, my wife and I often
have divergent views of what's gone on in our 26-year marriage. That
diversity is what makes the sifting necessary and may, at times, allow an
outsider without a particular axe to grind to see more clearly that an
insider. Allowing, of course, that both may have their own ideological baggage
to deal with--which is why we need to hear as many voices as possible.

John McCreery (JLM@TWICS.COM)

• Next message: Danny Yee: "Book Review - Always Coming Home (Le Guin)"
• Previous message: Anita Cohen-Williams: "Two more sites for Part 1"